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The Historical Elements of Lope De Vega's Fuente Ovejuna

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

C. E. Anibal
C. E. Anibal*
Affiliation:
Ohio State University
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Extract

Probably no play of Lope de Vega could claim structural perfection. Nevertheless, in his Fuente Ovejuna, universally accepted as a masterpiece, one marvels that the dynamic sweeping main plot—the stirring recital of this town's rebellion against its tyrannical overlord, the Grand Commander of Calatrava—should have been joined to a secondary plot apparently so irrelevant simply to give an account of a young Grand Master's unsuccessful attack on Cuidad Real. The historical background afforded by this episode in the life of the dashing Maestre, don Rodrigo Téllez Girón, does contribute to our understanding of the troubled first years of Ferdinand and Isabella and, to some extent, to the subtly created mediæval atmosphere. But even as milieu, it is far from essential to the epic account of Fuente Ovejuna's uprising. The Reyes Católicos, accorded attention quite out of proportion to their minor function in the drama—the administration of justice from the horizon—are themselves a distracting element.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 49 , Issue 3 , September 1934 , pp. 657 - 718
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1934

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References

1 The love story of Laurencia and Frondoso must be considered as no more than an important contribution to the Fuente Ovejuna (main) plot.

2 Observaciones preliminares, Obras de Lope de Vega, publicadas por la Real Academia Española, x, clxiv: Estudios sobre el teatro de Lope de Vega, V, in Obras completas, xiv, 201.

3 Chrónica de las tres Ordenes y Cavallerías de Santiago, Calatrava y Alcántara: en la qual se trata de su origen y successo y notables hechos en armas de los Maestres y Cavalleros de ellas; y de muchos Señores de titulo y otros Nobles que descienden de los Maestres; y de muchos otros Linajes de España. Compuesta por el licenciado Fray Francisco de Rades y Andrada, Capellán de su Magestad, de la Orden de Calatrava. Dirigida a la C.R.M. del Rey Philippe … Administrador perpetuo destas Ordenes. En Toledo, en casa de Juan de Ayala. Año 1572. Folios 78v–81r of the Chronica de Calatraua. See infra.

It is probably only this highly stressed monarchical protection of the people against tyrannical overlords that made it at all possible to perform Fuente Ovejuna in the Russia of the Czars (cf. Menéndez y Pelayo, Observaciones, pp. clix, clxiii, Estudios, pp. 194, 199), for the outraged people revolt not against their monarchs, but their feudal overlords. According to a letter sent from the State Public Library at Leningrad through my colleague George R. Havens, the basis of all Russian performances to date has been a sometimes altered or cut translation by Serge A. Jouriev (St. Petersburg, 1876), reprinted 1877, s.a., 1911–12, and 1927—the last an abridged edition by Prof. V. M. Fritshe, with text and commentary, in the Labourer's Library of Literature, Leningrad. The most popular performances before the revolution were those of The Little Theatre of Moscow, before 1890, and of The Ancient [sic] Theatre of St. Petersburg, 1911–12.

4 Since the Russian revolution, in addition to a production in 1919 by K. A. Mardjanov and H. B. Petrov at the Little Dramatic Theatre of Petrograd, and at Costroma, Fuente Ovejuna has been staged by many theatres of Moscow and of the Provinces: In 1928 … several times (about 40) on the stage of various laborer-clubs of Leningrad by … The Dramatic Circle of the Central Club of Metallists, and once at the Comedy Theatre during the Spring-Parade of the laborer's theatres of the city, 1929 (Letter cited, n. 3). In the Dec. 1930 London Mercury, two current productions are described by H. P. J. Marshall (p. 175). Certainly these recent productions must have been regarded as quite different in significance from those seen in the Russia of the old régime.

5 Observaciones, p. clxii; Estudios, p. 198.

6 “el episodio, secundario en verdad, pero tan curioso y significativo, de Fuente Ovejuna.”—Observ., p. clxiv; Estudios, p. 201.

7 “Un Maestre de Calatrava había estado a punto de ser rey de Castilla: otro había entrado a sangre y fuego en Ciudad Real …”—Observ., p. clxv; Estud., p. 203.

8 See note 13.

9 Act i, sc. v–vi.—The Commander's bravery and military prowess, repeatedly cited later, have been added by Lope as attenuating qualities in a character which Rades does not grant the slightest complexity.

10 Cf. Menéndez y Pelayo: “Sería absurdo atribuir al gran poeta animadversión ni malquerencia alguna contra instituciones cuyo aspecto heróico tenía que serle grato, en su condición de poeta popular y locamente enamorado de todas las cosas tradicionales de su patria.”—Locis cit., pp. clxv, 202.

11 Cf. Act i, sc. ii—of a forthcoming edition (D. C. Heath & Co.), vv. 87–89, 117–40 (BAE xli, pp. 633b–634a); “y el interés me engañó,/injusto fiel [a mis deudos] (vv. 2326–27: BAE, p. 649b, incorrectly, fué).

12 Cf. vv. 672–673 (BAE, p. 637b): “ensanchar pretendiendo/el honor de la encomienda.”—Also vv. 521–524 (BAE, p. 636b): “Al comendador y a todos/ha hecho tantas mercedes,/que el saco de la ciudad/el de su [his own] hacienda parece.” The young Maestre's motives are still fundamentally the same as those of his father: “y el Girón de Calatrava;/los señores de Castilla/gente en su tierra levantan;/civiles guerras desean/para acrecentar sus casas.”—El Milagro por los celos, Acad. x, p. 203a.

13 “Había hecho aquel Cavaliere mal tratamiento a sus vasallos, teniendo en la villa muchos soldados para sustentar en ella la voz del Rey de Portogal, que pretendía ser Rey de Castilla: y consentía que aquella descomedida gente hiziesse grandes agravios y afrentas a los de Fuente-ovejuna sobre comérselas sus haziendas. Ultradesto, el mismo Comendador mayor avía hecho grandes agravios y deshonras a los de la villa, tomándoles por fuerza sus hijas y mugeras, y robándoles sus haziendas para sustentar aquellos soldados que tenía, con título y color que el Maestre don Rodrigo Téllez Girón su señor lo mandava, porque entonces seguía aquel partido del Rey de Portogal.”

14 In Act iii, sc. 2 (v. 1716: BAE, 644b), Juan Rojo protests: “Las casas y las viñas nos abrasan.” I interpret this verse as specific amplification of Rades' declaration regarding the Commendador's unruly subordinates (cf. n. 13). But the speech is perplexing, for nowhere does Lope confirm it with the slightest hint that the Comendador's crimes may have included the actual destruction of property, of his own encomienda and source of income. Certainly even Rades does not imply arson. Should one assume that some entire scene has been cut from the extant text of only 2460 verses (analogous in length however, to those of El Marqués de las Navas, 2511, and El Brasil restituido, 2390)? Or should, perhaps, the verse in question be interpreted figuratively?—“With their burning lust, the Comendador and his men almost fire our very houses and vineyards (frequently the scene of our dishonor)” The metaphor is bold but may be found elsewhere. Cf. Radoff-Salley, Notes on the Burlador, in M.L.N., (April, 1930), pp. 239–241; and, for further example, Lope's El toledano vengado, Acad., Nueva ed., ii, p. 597b:

Tu engaño mi pecho abrasa,
que has puesto fuego en la casa
adonde entraste de paz.

15 There is hardly a man in town whose women folks—Laurencia, Pascuala, Jacinta, Olalla, Inés, Sebastiana, La de Antón, La de Martín del Pozo, et al.—have not been more or less annoyed, on or off stage, by this “insatiable monster.” Lope allows the women to retaliate by participating in the uprising, and particularly in the mutilation of the Comendador's body, to a very much more active extent than is suggested by his chronicle source. In the play the men are not moved to avenge their wrongs until finally instigated by the sarcastic eloquence of an outraged girl, Laurencia. When the Comendador's body is thrown out of the lofty window of his palace, it is the women below—not, as in Rades, the men—who catch it on the points of swords and pikes. They have taken an inexorable initiative. In Rades, the Fuente Ovejuna women constitute little more than a jubilant chorus. Lope has exalted them to vindictive furies.

16 “Luego acudieron a la ciudad de Córdova, y se encomendaron a ella, diziendo querían ser subjetos a su jurisdicción, como avían sido antes que la villa viniesse a poder de don Pedro Girón. Los de Córdova recibieron a Fuente-ovejuna por aldea de su ciudad, y de hecho despojaron a la Orden del señorío de ella, y pusieron justicia de su mano. La Orden se quexó deste despojo y fuerza ante los Reyes Cathólicos, y después ante el Romano Pontífice, etc.” Yet Lope intimates (v. 1683: BAE, p. 644b) that it is precisely at Córdoba that his final scene is supposed to pass.

17 Vv. 2362–4 (BAE, p. 649c): “Yo confieso que he de ver/el cargo en vuestro poder,/si me lo concede Dios.”

18 Cf. Rades: “y sus Altezas siendo informadas de las tiranías del Comendador Mayor, por las quales avía merescido la muerte, mandaron se quedase el negocio sin más averiguación.” Lope: “Rey—Pues no puede averiguarse/el suceso por escrito,/aunque fué grave el delito,/por fuerza ha de perdonarse.”

19 Cf. notes 17, 20; vv. 2020–27, (BAE, p. 646c).

20 Cf. vv. 2030–31 (BAE, p. 646c): “que tan grande atrevimiento/castigo ejemplar requiere.”

21 Locis cit., Observ., p. clxv, Estud., p. 202.

22 Ibid., p. clxiv, p. 201.

23 Ibid., p. clxvi, p. 203.—Cf. note 10.

24 Cf. vv. 2333–34 (BAE, 649b): “aquesta jornada/ de Granada, adonde vais.”—Lope seems quite oblivious of the fact that the immediate cause for the 1482 expedition against the Moors was the breaking of that very truce which for several years had made it possible for the Reyes Católicos to pursue the war of succession without external distractions.

25 Menéndez y Pelayo, locis cit., p. clxiv, p. 201.

26 Cf. note 9.

27 V. 936 (BAE, xli, p. 639b). Read: “el vario vulgo.”

28 In Fuente Ovejuna, for example, note the discussion of the nature of love which follows Laurencia's delightful catalogue of the satisfactions of simple life.—Act i, sc. iii–iv (v. 217 ff). On hope's aristocratic verse, see n. 54.

29 The details of Lope's essentially pictorial conception suggest the equestrian portraits of Velázquez.

30 Obras sueltas, xvii, p. 402.

31 Cf. C. E. Anibal, Lope de Vega and the Duque de Osuna, MLN, xlix, 1–11. Prof. Joaquín Ortega writes me that Osuna was such an extravagant person in the matter of gifts that very little was required to provoke his generosity. But that Lope himself considered that he had indeed written something which actually placed Osuna under obligation to him—an indebtedness, however, felt to be too long unrecognized, too long without some tangible expression of thanks—may perhaps be implied in the malicia with which, in the Dedication of La viuda valenciana, Lope abusively alludes to the stinginess of Marcia Leonarda's grossly mercantile and recently deceased husband: “Oí decir que su madre del tal difunto era de Osuna, o que al hacerse preñada pensó en un cofre: la imaginación hace caso; … él tenía estas gracias, y por añadidura el más grosero entendimiento que ha tenido celoso después que se usa estorbar mucho y regalar poco.”—Hartz., i, BAE xxiv, p. 67. This dedication to Doña Marta de Nevares Santoyo (Marcia Leonarda) was written sometime before October, 23, 1619, the date of licencia for the Parte XIV, in which it was first published, and, since the process of printing was usually extremely slow, may in fact have been composed as early as April or May, 1619, i.e., just before Osuna's belated gift arrived. However, one cannot insist on the possible allusion here to the fact that Osuna had not yet displayed the liberality Lope expected of him, for like many of the innuendos in this notable Dedication, the passage in question was no doubt intended only for Doña Marta's appreciation. It is consequently too subtly veiled with the proverbial bad reputation of the town of Osuna to make penetration of it anything of a risk. Cf. the refranes: “De Osuna, ni la luna” (Sbarbi, Dicc. de refranes; Marín, Más de 21,000 refranes cast.; Cejador, Refranero cast.); “De Osuna, de ciento, una: Quiere decir una mujer buena” (Marín); “En Osuna, allá se me suma.”—Correas, Vocab. de refranes; Cejador; also Rodríguez Marín, Cantos populares españoles, iv (Sevilla, 1883), p. 469, 789. The supposition of an allusion to the Duque de Osuna in the Viuda Valenciana dedication depends on the possibility of this dedication having been composed at least some six months before its publication in Parte XIV, and is made still more difficult, though not wholly improbable, by the fact that in Los esclavos libres, one of the plays of the immediately preceding Parte XIII (Aprob., Sept. 18, 1619), Lope seems repeatedly to have taken particular pains to eulogize Osuna. See article cited.

32 The hypothesis that Lope must have sent the Duque the printed text is based on the supposition that the autograph manuscript of Fuente Ovejuna must have been lost by one of the two printers of the Parte XII. This is in turn suggested by the fact that it was precisely at this epoch that Lope, now conscious of his worth as a dramatist, was sacrificing to the press his most authentic texts; that the autograph manuscripts of every play written by Lope in 1618—there must have been some—have vanished; that neither of the only two 1617 comedias of which autograph manuscripts are known—Lo que pasa en una tarde, El desdén vengado—was ever published until a mutilated version of the latter, apparently taken down from memory, was attributed to Rojas Zorilla in 1662 (See ed. M. M. Harlan, Inst. de las Españas, 1930, p. xlvi); that we know of the existence of no autograph manuscript of any play included in Lope's Parte XII or Parte XI; that such manuscripts as we have of these plays—including the Ilchester and Parma manuscripts of Fuente Ovejuna—are all mere copies of the printed text; that the Osuna library, so rich in dramatic treasures, did not include even one of these manuscript copies of Fuente Ovejuna.

33 One readily sympathizes with Lope's possible impatience, but a month for the journey from Italy to Spain was considered marvelously fast time. Cf. La piedad ejecutada (ca. 1602), Acad., Nueva ed. viii, p. 460a. Cabrera de Córdoba reckons fine sailing from Barcelona to Italy as taking probably thirteen days (Relationes de las cosas sucedidas … desde 1599 hasta 1614, Madrid, 1857, p. 25).

34 Estudios, vi, p. 269.

35 Cf. Menéndez y Pelayo, op. cit., v, p. 117: “Tales elementos hubieran bastado para hacer un buen drama sobre la caída de D. Alvaro, pero desgraciadamente Lope no siguió esta pista.” In La prueba de los amigos (Acad. Nueva ed., xi, 115b–116a), Lope leaves no doubt regarding his positive distaste for this subject:

—¡Historia!… ¿Qué más notoria,
si de ellas gusto tenéis,
que aquesta del Condestable?
Deciséis romances sé.
—Daldo al diablo, que no fué
la de Orlando tan notable.
¿Qué piensan estos poetas,
pues que no hay semana alguna
sin don Alvaro de Luna
y otros cuarenta planetas?
¡Romances de tres en tres
a un enfadoso sujeto!
mas como es luna, en efeto,
sale nueva cada mes.

In La desdicha por la honra (Fitzgerald, L. de V., Novelas a la Señora Marcia Leonarda, p. 54), Lope's allusion to don Alvaro as the subject of romances is again more depreciative than otherwise. A romance on don Alvaro (Lunes era un triste día), attributed to Lope himself in 1601, is of doubtful authenticity. Cf. La Barrera, Nueva biografía, (Vol. i, Acad. ed.), p. 99.

36 Loc. cit., p. 137.

37 BAE lxviii, pp. 222–223.

38 Cf. G. Cirot's comprehensive study of Don Rodrigo's later activities and death, “Sur les romances ‘del Maestre de Calatrava’,” in Bulletin Hispanique, xxxiv (1932), pp. 5–26.

39 Cf. Crónicas de los Reyes de Castilla, BAE lxvi, pp. 481–83.

40 Cf. Acad. N., vii, p. 28b.

41 Cf. Acad. ix, pp. 349a, 360b, 362b.

42 Cf. R. Menéndez Pidal, L'Épopée castillane à travers la littérature espagnole, trans. Henri Mérimée (Paris, 1910), pp. 235–236.

43 Cf. El Rey Don Pedro en Madrid, BAE v (Comedias de Tirso), pp. 598b, 608b.

44 Cf. José R. Lomba, El Rey D. Pedro en el Teatro, in Homenaje a Menéndez y Pelayo, ii, 279; also id., pp. 257, 262, 263, 294–301, 324.

45 Cf., notwithstanding its reminder of the cantor and clérigo killed in Seville (p. 609a), the doubtful El Rey don Pedro en Madrid, BAE v, pp. 529b, 592c, 594a, 595c, 596b, 596c, 597a, 597b, 599b, 605a, 605c, 607a, 611a. Note also that although Pedro here interprets the first appearance of the sombra as “miedos vanos, ilusiones de Blanca y mis hermanos” (p. 594b), Don Fadrique is later (p. 605b) briefly mentioned not only as alive but as a seditious traitor compelling and meriting, one is made to feel, the fraternal crushing Pedro meditates. The wronged Leonor's plea for Tello (p. 604c) constitutes in reality a perfect expression of the author's—and Lope's—attitude toward Pedro. Despite his misdeeds, “es padre / de la patria; que las obras / en el hombre no son unas,/ aunque son del hombre todas./ … No la parte de grosero/defendemos; las gloriosas / acciones solicitamos.”

46 Cf., Acad. ix, 589b–590a.

47 Cf. Menéndez y Pelayo's comment on Pedro's satisfacción—and Lope's further distortion of historical truth—in Las audiencias del Key Don Pedro (Estudios sobre el teatro de Lope …, iv, pp. 352–354).

48 Cf. Acad. ix, 567a: “Lo que ha hecho el Rey, no digo: dígalo el reino quejoso.”

49 Cf. ibid., p. 584b.

50 Cf. ibid., pp. 566b, 567b.

51 Cf. ibid., p. 566b: “don Fadrique,/ hoy Maestre generoso/ de Santiago, cuyos hechos / se extienden de polo a polo.”

52 Cf. ibid., p. 594a.

53 Cf. Menéndez y Pelayo, Estudios, iv, pp. 371, 370.

54 Cf. J. F. Montesinos: “… el héroe es la nobleza, y Lope no entiende estas palabras—nobleza, valor, calidad—en el sentido que hoy les daríamos trasladándolas a condiciones morales, sino en su acepción propia y absoluta. En su mente perviven recuerdos de una idealogía aristocrática y caballeresca en la que la ética y la heráldica se mezclan en una pintoresca promiscuidad. Nobleza es un concepto que se predica del alma y de la estirpe … es la sensibilidad para la aventura, el valor personal: nobleza que el caballero afirma con una alta conciencia de sí mismo. Pero es la sangre heredada lo que determina la trayectoria de la voluntad. La sangre heredada hace al heroe.” (La figura del donaire en el teatro de Lope de Vega, in Homenaje a Menéndez Pidal, i, 470).

55 Bk. iii, BAE xxxvii, pp. 85–88.

56 Earlier, however, in Bk. ii, (BAE, p. 74b), there occurs an epitaph to don Gonzalo Girón, Maestre de Santiago but more obscure and of a less theatrical death than don Rodrigo. This sonnet concludes with another noteworthy compliment to Lope's patron, but the undramatic end of d. Gonzalo could scarcely have afforded material for La muerte del Maestre:

Aquí yace el maestre de Santiago
que a España de un girón dejó vestida
de gloria y honra que inmortal se llama;
el que haciendo en los moros duro estrago,
dió el alma al cielo y en Moclin la vida,
a Osuna gloria y a su nombre fama.

57 BAE, lii (Lope iv), p. 286a.

58 See Durán, Romancero general, BAE x, xvi, nos. 1076, 1110, 1111.—Nos. 101, 102, 103, 1095–1109, and 112 celebrate other exploits, which could have afforded Lope material for the earlier scenes of a play ending with don Rodrigo's death.

59 Ed. Ocerín-Tenreiro, Clás. Cast. 39, v. 1504. Cf. note.

60 Cf. Anibal, Lope de Vega and the Duque de Osuna, MLN, xlix, 3–4.

61 Acad., Nueva ed., vi, 167b.

62 I shall discuss the date and Lope's paternity of Guerras de amor …, questioned by Montesinos, on a subsequent occasion.

63 Written in 1588, but retouched before publication in 1602.

64 Obras sueltas, ii, 236.

65 The unsympathetic character of Rodrigo's father, don Pedro, makes confusion here unlikely. The elder Girón was a politician rather than a warrior. He did little that could really add lustre to the Girón name.

66 See Anibal, Mira de Amescua: El Arpa de David, Lisardo, his pseudonym, pp. 132–136.

67 Cf. the 1617 Lo que pasa en una tarde, Acad. N. ii, 300a.

68 Tratado de los romances viejos, ii (Antología de poetas líricos castellanos, xii), 216–21.—In addition to being the subject of romances already cited, don Rodrigo is repeatedly mentioned by Ginés Pérez de Hita in his Guerras civiles de Granada (Segu. parte, ca. 1604).

69 El marqués de Mantua.—Only four more are cited even in the 1618 list. Of these Fuente Ovejuna is the first to be mentioned, immediately following four plays from Parte XI (Aprob. Feb. 4, 1618), of which all but two plays are, as would be expected, also in the 1618 list (Fe de erratas, Feb. 13).

70 See Américo Castro, Santa Teresa y otros ensayos (Madrid, 1929), pp. 235–252.

71 Tesoro de la lengua castellana, 1611.

72 Cf. Rodríguez Marín, Más de 21,000 refranes castellanos no contenidos en … Correas (Madrid, 1926), pp. 207a, 276a, 412b: Fuente Ovejuna, todos a una; Los de Fuenteovejuna, todos a una; “¿Quién mató al Conde?”—Todos a una: “Fuente Ovejuna” (Provincia de Badajoz). Sbarbi, Dicc. de refranes (1922), I, pp. 395–96: Fuenteabejuna, todos a una; ¿Quién mató al conde de Fuenteabejuna?—Todos a una. Despite the occurrence of Conde and Todos a una in the examples of both of these collections, neither expression is used by Lope. As part and parcel of the community slogan the former is suggested only in explanatory or descriptive speeches at 2095 (concertaos todos a una / en lo que habéis de decir) and 2373 (conformes a una … responden “Fuente Ovejuna”). Note also the genuinely popular and no doubt correct avejuna.

73 My edition is the Juan de la Cuesta volume, Madrid, 1619, 1618, that includes not only both of these works but also the remarkably full Quatro cartas de Blasco de Garay, hechas en refranes, para enseñar el vso dellas.

74 Arte grande de la lengua castellana, El Conde de la Viñaza ed. (Madrid, 1903), p. 258.

75 Mir ed. (Madrid, 1906), p. 346a. Other refranes included by Correas (pp. 7b, 117b), “A los de la Granja, naranja, y a los de la Fuente Ovejuna, aceituna” and “En Fuenteovejuna falta el aceite y el vino suda,” are quite unrelated to those in question. The second, at least, must have been unknown to Lope, for, otherwise, he could scarcely have failed to capitalize a proverbial saying so potentially appropriate to Mengo's drinking scene (xix) in Act iii (vv. 2265–2288).

76 Respectively demonstrating the heroic reticence on the rack of even the children (Niño) and women (Pascuala) of Fuente Ovejuna.

77 Cf., for analogy, the still current “O.K., Colonel” from Fred Stone's Ripples.

78 See Act iii, scenes xiii, xiv, xviii, xix, xxiv, (BAE xli, pp. 647–49): vv. 2112, 2214, 2242, 2101 (lo ha hecho), 2288 (Ovejunica, comic diminutive).

79 Vv. 2098, 2116, 2376 (Juez's official report), with again the comic diminutive in 2256, and slight variations in 2130 (Quién? F. O.), 2294 (Pues, F. O. fué), and 2292 (F. O., mi bien).

80 “Preguntávales el Juez: ”Quién mató al Comendador mayor?“ Respondían ellos: ”Fuente-ovejuna.“ Preguntávales: ”Quién es Fuente-ovejuna?“ Respondían: ”Todos los vezinos desta villa.“

81 Vv. 1548–71 (BAE xli, 643b).

82 See Menéndez y Pelayo, Estudios … v, 87 ff, 368 ff., 69–70. Also on the basic refrán of Los novios de Eornachuelos, pp. 23 ff.

83 Loc. cit., p. 198.

84 Estudios … iv (Obras Completas xiii). 198.

85 For this note see p. 689.

86 BAE, xli, 633c, 634a, 633b, 647c, 642c, 649b, 636a, 637b. Verse numbers are those of my forthcoming edition.

87 Possibly an error for freiles. The term frey was applied to any member of an order, whether knight or monk, and could be used here to designate those who were not officers, or comendadores.

88 Here follows that portion of the text reproduced by Menéndez y Pelayo (locis cit.). Read “descomedida gente,” Estudios, p. 197, l. 5, Observaciones, p. clxi, l. 16.

85 It seems, for instance, incredibly unlike Lope that, if he had been familiar with the Rades version of the traditional prayer to the Virgin (to stay the sun, that victory over the Moors might be carried to completion before evening), he should have muffed the folkloristic tang of the rhythmicly superior Sancta María, detén tu día (as recorded in Rades and Correas) by willfully destroying its consonantal rhyme and forcing it into octosyllabic lines such as Detén, Señora, tu día or Tú, Virgen, detén tu día (Acad. ix, 78ab)—really closer to Mariana's version, Señora, ten tu día. Lope does not follow the Rades account of events leading up to and into the fighting, and consequently, with an awkward leap into the miraculous, seems to conjure up battle simply that the sun may be delayed according to legendary schedule, rather than to stay the sun that battle already in progress may be continued. Lope's protagonist, “Pelayo Perez Correa e hijo de doña Andrea de Anguilar” (ibid., p. 55b) is to Rades (passim) “don Pelay Perez … hijo de … doña Dordea Perez de Aguiar” (sic, fol. 31r), etc.

89 Cf. Wilhelm Ruser, Roma abrasada … Eine Studie zu Lope de Vega, in Revue Hispanique lxxii (no. 162), 339 ff.; Menéndez y Pelayo, Estudios … v, 70, 174, 178, iv, 10 404, 407–408, etc.

90 The poetic license evident in Lope's final disposition of Fuente Ovejuna, his compression of the war of succession, his reason for dropping further investigation of the Comendador's murder, Manrique's return to Fernando and Isabel, are interesting alterations but of comparatively little moment.

91 See note 13.

92 See E. Mérimée, Essai sur la vie et les œuvres de Francisco de Quevedo (Paris, 1886), pp. 35–65.

93 Disregarded by Lope, but described by Rades.

94 Judged by standards of 1476, the Comendador's alleged profligacy, even if true, could at most have been considered little more than “minor morals,” a weakness which mediaeval tradition gave him a perfect seigniorial right to indulge.

95 See A. Paz y Melia, El Cronista Alonso de Patencia … Hispanic Society of America (Madrid, 1914), pp. 392, 422, 423.

96 Crónica de Enrique IV, escrita en Latín por Alonso de Patencia, Traducción Castellana Por A. Paz y Melia, Colección de Escritores Cast., 138 (Madrid, 1908), iv, 199–203. Menéndez y Pelayo has justly remarked, apropos of Lope's El mejor mozo de España (Estudios … v, 133): “No creo que Lope acudiese a esta fuente porque los códices de las Décadas [the Latin title] son muy raros y hasta por los historiadores de profesión han sido mucho menos estudiados de lo que debieron.” M. P. believes it possible, however, that Lope may have read a manuscript copy of a Castilian compendium of Palencia's work.

97 For various estimates of Palencia, see Menéndez y Pelayo, Antología de poetas líricos cast. vi, pp. ii–iii, x–xi; also Paz y Melia, El Cronista Alonso de Palencia, pp. vii, xxxviii, lxv, 1 ff. Paz y Melia: “Además de los documentos, son las Décadas de Palencia la única fuente auténtica para el conocimiento de aquella época.” Zurita: “el historiador más veraz de España.” Etc.

98 Summarized by Paz y Melia (op. cit., p. 377) as follows: “Los de Fuente Ovejuna dan cruel muerte al comendador Ramírez de Guzmán (sic), excelente caballero, azuzados tal vez por Girón.” Covarruvias too (Tesoro de la lengua cast., 1611, 1674, sub Fuente) seems not to accept the usual story without a slight hint of incredulity: “los muchos agravios que pretendian averies hecho [el Comendador].”

99 However, as will be seen later, the royal attempt to investigate and avenge the Comendador's death must at best have been rather perfunctory. The distractions of so vital a war unquestionably kept the monarchs from an adequate administration of justice even in the case of a follower “tan leal a su partido.” To this plausible and quite sufficient explanation of Palencia (see above) may of course be added those obvious reasons of state that in the complicated politics of the time dictated measures moderate enough to enable Ferdinand and Isabella to make the most of their loss. The murder of the Comendador was regrettable, but little could be done about it that would not weaken the royal cause.

100 Cf., for instance, the uprisings in San Felices (Palencia quotation above) or in Villena (Hernando del Pulgar, Crónica de … Don Fernando y Doña Isabel, BAE., lxx, 275a).

101 Libros de Antaño V, Dos tratados de Alfonso de Palencia (Madrid, 1876), pp. iii, v, vi, vii. A colophon (ibid., p. 167) declares that the Tratado was composed in 1459. This probably refers to the translation, whose publication the editor places “a fines del siglo décimo quinto” (ibid., p. xxvi), a date that should perhaps be set even before that of the Comendador's death, April 22, 1476.

102 Published by Marcos Jiménez de la Espada and the Marqués de la Fuensanta del Falle as vol. viii of the Colección de Libros Españoles Raros o Curiosos (Madrid, 1874).—Although the editors follow Rades' account of the Fuente Ovejuna uprising, they confirm my identification of the Comendador: “D. Fernando González [sic] de Guzman, Comendador de Villarrubia de la Orden de Calatrava y después de la muerte de D. Juan Ramírez de Guzman, Comendador mayor durante la segunda parte del Maestrazgo de D. Pedro Girón (m. 1466) y los principios del de su hijo D. Rodrigo Téllez Girón, célebre por su muerte y la fama que dió con ella a Fuenteovejuna …” (ii, 45–46).

103 Loc. cit., pp. i, ii, xvi, xvii.

104 Ibid., p. xx.

105 See Amador de los Ríos, Hist. crít. de la lit. esp., vi, note pp. 87–88.

106 Cancionero castellano del siglo XV, ordenado por R. Foulché-Delbosc, NBAE 19 (Madrid, 1912), i, 706.

107 Menéndez y Pelayo however accepts Rades' version without the slightest hesitancy or suspicion: “El hecho enteramente histórico …; el concienzudo analista …” (Estudios, v., 195). He calls him a “crédulo analista” only as regards the miraculous (id. iv, 198).

108 Fol. 74, where the exchange of Osuna and Cazalla for Fuente Ovejuna and Bélmez is qualified as a “notorio agravio y enorme daño” to the order.

109 Fol. 76v b.

110 See note 13, and for proof of error, infra.

111 Quoted by Menéndez y Pelayo, Estud., v, 197.

112 Nobiliario genealógico de los Reyes y títulos de España … compuesto por Alonso Lopez de Haro (Madrid, 1622).

113 La Casa de los Guzmanes, in Revista de historia y de genealogía española, iii (Madrid, 1914), 509–510. See infra.

114 Chrónica, fol. 70v a.

115 See item 4 above.

116 See Palencia, Crónica de Enrique IV (Paz y Melia trans.), iii, 405, 412; Mosén Diego de Valera, Crónica de los Reyes Católicos, Ed. Juan de M. Carriazo, Rev. de Filología Española, Anejo viii (Madrid, 1927), 16.

117 Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, xxxix (1901), 449, 450, 459, 463.

118 Despite D. Francisco R. de Uhagon's recognition of Rades as “autoridad respetable en cuestiones de las órdenes y que estudió con singular provecho los papeles de sus Archivos.” See Ordenes militares: Discursos leídos ante la Real Acad. de la Historia (Madrid, 1898), p. 31. Rather partial in his excuses for don Pedro Girón, Uhagon admits, however, that Rades echoes certain “históricos errores de mucho bulto en lo que atañe a la muerte de D. Pedro, sospechando que murío por efectos de un veneno …” (ibid.).

119 One of the two errors in Ramírez de Arellano's otherwise admirable study on La Rebelión de Fuente Obejuna is that, like Lope, he assumes that the entire Order of Calatrava supported Juana: “los calatravos habían tomado el partido de la Beltraneja” (loc. cit. p. 456); and again: “con la malquerencia de los lugareños hacia el Comendador mayor que les hacía objeto de toda suerte de vejaciones … y con la presunción de que los Reyes Católicos verían con buenos ojos que se les quitaban de en medio un enemigo de alguna consideración como era el Comendador partidario decidido del rey de Portugal, Córdoba no dudó” (ibid., p. 457). Cf. Ilustraciones y notas a las Andanças e viages de Pero Tafur, loc. cit., ii, 456.

120 Op. cit., iii, 405, 411–413; iv, 124. See also iii, 408; iv, 19, 20, 23.

121 Op. cit., pp. 16–17, 40, 54–55.

122 Jerónimo Zurita y Castro, Anales de la Corona de Aragón (Zaragoça, 1610–70), tomo iv, lib. xix, cap. xxviii (fol. 240r a), cap. xxxi (fol. 243v a).

123 Hernando del Pulgar, Crónica de Don Fernando y Doña Isabel, Segunda Parte, Cap. xvii, BAE lxx, 267b, 275a.

124 Paz y Melia, Cronista Alonso Palencia, Ilustración 94, p. 205.

125 Of which his Memorial de diversas hazañas (BAE lxx, 3–95) is a compendium, and may at times have been used by Lope (cf. n. 96).

126 Paz y Melia, op. cit., p. ix.

127 Ibid., pp. vi, viii.

128 Cf. ibid., pp. cxl-cxli; “Unas veces traduciendo a la letra, otros resumiendo mucho y siempre añadiendo notas personales, la obra de Valera conserva un gran valor hasta en aquello en que sigue a Palencia más fielmente. Pero además de los capítulos informados por Palencia, Valera tiene otros completamente originales, donde sus noticias valen como fuente capital y a veces única.”—See ibid., p. cxxv; on Zurita, Menéndez y Pelayo. Estudios, … v, p. 126.

129 Alcaraz, for instance. See Palencia, op. cit., iii, 403–409.

130 By which Uhagon (op. cit., p. 34) would whitewash even Don Pedro Girón: “Todas estas culpas que no niego las tuuiera, más que vicios personales, eran achaques del caos que anublaba con su velo a toda la monarquía. …”

131 See Palencia quotation above.

132 Boletin de la Real Academia de la Historia, xxxix (1901), 446–512.—I became aware of Ramirez's valuable investigation only after I had already reached my conclusion as to the Comendador's innocence and had announced it in the 1929 Program of the M.L.A. as a paper to be read by title.

133 See note 119.

134 Loc. cit., p. 466.

135 Op. cit., p. 447, quoted from Cortes de los antiguos reinos de León y Castilla, pub. by the Real Acad. de la Hist., 1866.

136 Uhagon (op. cit., pp. 20–21) is not altogether convincing in his argument that this exchange was a fair one, and that the resultant criticism of D. Pedro Girón was therefore unjust. The official document of transfer (March 20, 1464) credits Fuente Ovejuna with 985 vassals and declares that “sin las alcabalas e tercias, en ella hay salvo de rentas ordinarias ochenta mill e setecientos maravedis.”

137 Ramírez, op. cit., p. 457.

138 Lope's treatment of the Fuente Ovejuna rebellion must of course not be confused with its real historical significance, which, as has been shown, he stresses no more than is necessary for his purely dramatic purpose.

139 Num. iv, loc. cit., pp. 476–503.

140 Among whom was the Comendador's friend, Pedro Tafur, who had dedicated to him his Andanças e viages, as has been seen.

141 Ramírez, op. cit., p. 487.

142 Ibid., pp. 465–466.

143 Ibid., p. 459.

144 Ibid., p. 485.

145 Ibid., p. 486.

146 Ibid., p. 489.

147 Op. cit., iv, 199, 201.

148 See supra.

149 It must be remembered that Lope's conception of the Maestre has been touched with the glory of legend.

150 See Ramírez, op. cit., p. 454; Palencia, op. cit. iii, 108–115, and Ciudad Real quotation supra.

151 Amador de los Rios, Historia de los Judíos, iii, 34, n. 1.

152 with characteristic discretion, Aguilar himself did not go to Fuente Ovejuna even with the official delegation. The bloody character of his henchmen, the desenfrenado populacho, may be seen from the Palencia passage last cited in note 120.

153 Palencia, loc. cit., p. 109.

154 Ramírez, op. cit., p. 463.

155 That Ovejuna is a popular corruption of Abejuna (<abeja) is evident both from the swarm of bees that crowns Fuente Ovejuna's coat of arms, and from the mucha y rica miel (Zerolo) that is still one of the town's principal products.

156 Ibid., pp. 463–464.

157 Ibid., p. 484 (Doc. iv).

158 Doc. iv, loc. cit., p. 485.

159 Quite comparable to the mob scenes described by Rades and dramatized by Lope.

160 After knocking down what remained of the pillory, “tomó en sus manos una lanza, e derribó e derrocó la corteza de la pared de encima de la dicha puerta …” ibid., p. 463.

161 Op. cit., cap. xvii, p. 267b.

162 Historia general de España, Kb. xxiv, cap. xi, BAE xxxi, 193a. Mariana seems to have followed Rades; his sympathies are not with the Comendador, and he erroneously makes him a supporter of Portugal and Juana.

163 Op. cit., under Fuente.

164 Op. Cit., fols. 78r b, 81r b, 157v.

165 Ibid., fol. 78r b.

166 BAE lxx, 542a

167 Revista de historia y de genealogía española, iii (Madrid, 1914), 509–510.

168 His father, his two uncles, and his elder brother, called only Juan by Guerra, were made prisoners, and four of his cousins were killed.

169 Título xiv, ed. Clásicos cast., p. 108.—The editor, confusing father and son, incorrectly assumes that the victim at Fuente Ovejuna was the former.

170 Cf. Fernán Pérez de Guzmán, Crónica del Rey Don Juan II, BAE lxviii, 692a; Palencia, op. cit., i, 138; Mariana, op. cit., ii, 139b.

171 No official record of this authorization has been found in the Indice de los documentos de la órden militar de Calatrava as printed in the Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, xxxv (1899), 5–167.

172 Op. cit., Segunda Parte, p. 101a.

173 Historia genealógica de la Casa de Lara, justificada con instrumentos y escritores de inviolable fe, por Don Luis de Salazar y Castro, Fiscal de la órden de Calatrava (Madrid, 1696), iii, 338.—Argote de Molina, Nobleza de Andalucía (Sevilla, 1588), affords no pertinent material, while Luis Villar y Pascual, Diccionario histórico genealógico y heráldico de las familias ilustres de la monarquía de España (1859–1864), v, 243, concerned only with the mayorazgo, carries the Guzmán genealogy on through father and brother without mentioning our Comendador, probably because of his afore-mentioned lack of offspring.

174 Op. cit., i, 138.

175 As does Aguilar, op. cit., passim.

176 Op. cit., iii, 69, 408, 412; iv, 19, 124. Twice (iii, 412, 413) Palencia also speaks of him simply as Ramírez de Guzmán, and twice (iv, 23, 200) merely as Fernando Ramirez.

177 Op. cit., pp. 16, 40, 55.

178 Op. cit., lib. xix, cap. xxviii, fol. 240r a.

179 Op. cit., 2a Parte, p. 102.

180 See Guerra, op. cit., p. 509; Salazar, op. cit., iii, 338.—As regards the possibility of a genuine patronymic, it should be remembered that, as Salazar remarks (loc. cit., p. 454), “ya en el tiempo del Rey d. Alfonso XI … auía cessado el estilo inviolable de mostrar cada vno en su nombre su filiación, que es de lo que sirvieron los patronímicos. La necesidad que antes auía en las familias para este cuidado, remedió el establecimiento de las armas y de los apellidos, con que se fué perdiendo el uso riguroso de los patronímicos, y quedando a cada uno la facultad de alterarlos o mantenerlos.”

181 See note 105.

182 “Frey Fernan Gomez de Guzman, Comendador de Villarruuia. Fue despues Comendador mayor.”—Op. cit., fol. 78r b.

183 “Los Comendadores que en la dicha eleccion dieron sus votos para ser Maestre a don Juan de Guzman, son estos: Frey Fernando de Guzman, su hijo, Comendador de Talavera y de las Casas de Palencia …” (Ibid.) Cf. the Guerra, López de Haro and Salazar quotations supra.

184 See Palencia, Op. cit., iii, 69; Valera, Memorial de diversas hazañas, BAE lxx, 74b.

185 Op. cit., i, 471–475.

186 Op. cit., p. 34a.

187 Palencia, Op. cit., ii, 59–73; Valera, Op. cit., pp. 41–45.